Georgina Pazcoguin

Pazcoguin was born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania.[2] She is biracial; her father is a retired surgeon[4] who immigrated from the Philippines after medical school, and her mother is Italian.[2] Growing up as a middle child with five siblings,[2] Pazcoguin would try to get noticed by being "really weird", such as putting on performances of The Nutcracker with her siblings in the family's basement.[5] She began training at the Allegheny Ballet Academy when she was four years old.[6] Growing up, Pazcoguin also took classes in other dance styles besides ballet, including African, tap and jazz.[7]

She graduated from the Professional Children's School with a high school diploma.[8]

In 2001, Pazcoguin enrolled in the School of American Ballet, the associate school of the New York City Ballet (NYCB). The following year, she started an apprenticeship with NYCB, and in 2003 became a member of its corps de ballet.[6] She became a soloist following a promotion in 2013,[6] which Pazcoguin says makes her the first Asian American female soloist in NYCB's history.[2][9]

With NYCB, Pazcoguin performed featured roles in the original productions of Romeo + Juliet (as the Nurse, 2007), Lifecasting (2009), Ocean's Kingdom (as Scala, 2011). She has also had featured roles in numerous NYCB revivals, including George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream (as Hippolyta), The Sleeping Beauty (as Carabosse) and West Side Story Suite (as Anita).[6] The role of Anita, which Pazcoguin first played in NYCB's 2008 American Songs and Dances program,[10] was the first that required her to sing on stage.[7][11]

Pazcoguin also appeared in the 2010 film adaptation of N.Y. Export: Op. Jazz,[2][6] directed by Jody Lee Lipes and Henry Joost.[12]

After years as a corps de ballet dancer, Pazcoguin felt her career was stagnating and began to explore opportunities in theater.[8] In 2012,[16] she joined American Dance Machine for the 21st Century (a reboot of the American Dance Machine), a dance company that performs Broadway theater dance numbers.[8] Pazcoguin made her Broadway debut in August 2015 for a two-week stint as a replacement for Megan Fairchild in the role of Ivy Smith in the revival of On the Town.[17][18] Her next Broadway role came when she was asked to audition for Victoria the White Cat in the 2016 Broadway revival of Cats. She got the part and took a leave of absence from NYCB for the role.[1][4] Pazcoguin noted that playing Victoria pushed her beyond her comfort zone, as the ingénue character was a departure from her usual roles and the part required her to sing and hip-hop dance.[1][19] Cats officially opened in July 2016 and Pazcoguin eventually left the production in March 2017.[17]

• 2002 Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise – won[20]
• 2017 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show – nominated for Cats[17]